Patna: The health department is planning to conduct a special drive between Diwali and Chhath to motivate couples to opt for family planning measures.

Principal secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday hinted about the plan to launch the special drive during this time of the year because he said it turned out that most women conceive during this period of the year in the state.

"This is also reflected in the figures of our institutional deliveries because we have found most of the institutional deliveries take place in the government facilities nine months after Diwali and Chhath. This may be because of inflow of people in the state during this time of the year," said Sanjay. He spoke on the highest total fertility rate of Bihar in the country and what measures the health department had taken and also those were in the pipeline to reduce the fertility rate.

Sanjay said during a roundtable discussion on family planning organised by the health department in collaboration with Care India at a city hotel on the eve of World Population Day on Tuesday which health minister Mangal Pandey also attended.

Experts who took part in the programme said 90 percent women's first exposure to modern contraception method in the state happens when she comes for sterilisation procedure at a health facility. It has also come to the fore that most of the women opt for modern contraception method only after two to three child births.

Experts said the family planning burden was mostly shared by women in the state. Of the total sterilisation procedures that was conducted in the state in the last one year, women's participation was 97 percent against 3 percent participation of their male counterparts while on national context, women's participation in sterilisation procedure is 93 percent against 7 percent participation of their male counterparts.

"It has been found that women here in the state chose modern contraception method at the age of 26 -27 while their first exposure to sex happens at the age of 17-18. The modern contraceptive methods can be very effective in delaying the birth of first child and spacing between two child births," said chief of party of Bihar Technical Support Programme of Care India Dr Hemant Shah.

The total fertility rate refers to the number of children born to a woman in her lifetime.